And so I did the cupcakes and they're absolute divine!!! The texture of the cake is more steam like. However, the colour of cupcakes do not look as good as Rita's, it's very very pale. Based on my baking experience, cakes that use very little oil will not yield a golden colour but I'm not complaining as they still tasted great especially the goey PB and nutella fillings.

Preheat oven to 180C. Mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix wet ingredients in another bowl, except peanut butter and nutella. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, mix a bit, add peanut butter and nutella, whisk until just combined. Pour batter into muffin tray lined with paper cups half way, spoon a bit of peanut butter and nutella in the middle, top off with more batter until 3/4 full, bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Monday, 29 June 2009

Last Thurday, I was contemplating with Jay's invite to the grand launch of BestFoodJunction.com for I was coughing my lungs out for more than a week. The coughs were so forceful that they bruised my throat badly and rendered me almost voiceless. A first for me indeed to have lost my voice. Anyway, I decided to take up the invite and I have no regrets even though it was tough for me not being able to carry a conversation out.

I was late as the traffic in the city was horrendous but I caught another jam around The Curve, geee... which was bad. After registering, I looked around and saw no familiar faces. So I tried some of the food around then I saw Simon across the room. Can't miss this cutie in his bright red shirt! He's so famous that he was actually here in between another event at The Laundry!!!

Then... jeng jeng jeng, I thot I saw someone very familiar, yes yes yes, it's Su of Delectable. I was very happy indeed, it's my first time seeing the Queen of sugarcraft :p Funny how I actually got to know her when I invited her to partipate Merdeka Open House 2006: Recipe Long Forgotten and she submitted her Kampar Chicken Biscuits entry. From there I see how she paved her way to make her dreams came true with the opening of Delectable. You go girl!

Ermmm July is looming, should I host another round of Merdeka Open House???

Shortly later I said Hi to The Nomad Gourmand and she in turn introduced me to Pure Glutton!!! Wow, I was indeed very very happy to have attended this event. Later on Rachel turned up as well. Oh yeah I forgot Tim was there and he introduced me to his lovely wife.

I also finally met the people behind BestFoodJunction.com who is no stranger to me. A couple of my articles were featured in the printed magazine. Do check out the mag at major bookstores. Not only that, BestFoodJunction.com has a portal on restaurants and reviews PLUS you can click click to reserve tables at the participating restaurants and earn some vouchers along the way. Ahhhh... the wonders of technology!!!

Thursday, 25 June 2009

Back when I was young, Sunday is always a treat for us as Dad will bring us out for breakie. Breakfast at Yut Kee would have been a great treat as other times kopitiam that serves good chu cheung fun, char koay teow, pork ball noodles or wantan meen would make us jump too.

However kids these days are far more privileged just like my boiboi. His daddy takes him to Old Town Kopitiam whenever he fancies some french toasts or at times a place that serves big breakfast when the maid mummy is not cooking up any yummy breakie.

This time we went to La Bodega Deli for some BIG breakfast. We were a little late for breakie but it's all right since big breakfast is served all day here. Daddy and mummy both have a portion of BIG breakfast with juice and coffee/tea thrown in for RM27++ each (RM22++ without the drinks). Boiboi wasn't interested to share with mummy after he saw the words waffles + ice-cream (RM18++) in the menu. I can't blame him... who could resist warm waffles topped with cold ice-cream???

Our big breakfast came with beef bacon, breakfast sausages, fried mushrooms, half a grilled tomato, baked beans, a slice of toast and eggs done in our choice, scrambled for me and bullseye for Capt'n Hook. Can't fault them as everything was done just as they should especially my scrambled eggs. When my plate reaches the table, my boiboi couldn't resist asking to share some of mine *roll eyes*. I think he ate virtually 3/4 of my eggs, half of my toast and all the sausages plus my juice.

When the waffles came, my boiboi only took a bit of the waffles but ate almost all of the ice-cream. So ended up the mummy and daddy doing the Alam Flora bit as usual. The waffles were crisp on the outside but fluffy on the inside... tastes just as good plain or like us with some honey drizzled all over since boiboi ate up all the ice-cream which came in a single scoop only to go with 4 slices of waffles.

This is the kinda deli we would love to kick off our shoes on a lazy Sunday morning with excellent and attentive service from the wait staff. If only they're nearer home... sighhhh.

Friday, 19 June 2009

It piqued my interest when my friend Pat mentioned that he went to this place somewhere in Kepong that serves a variety of dishes from one single fish. Last week we decided to go dinner together with CES and we asked Pat to bring us to this place which is actually in Selayang not Kepong. It's rather easy to find, from Kepong/FRIM just go straight on until the traffic light junction of the bridge/flyover from Selayang. Continue straight until roundabout. Take 12 o'clock and you'll see a row of hawkers on your left. Slow down and look for a left turn. Turn left and you should find the Restoran Satu Ikan Tiga Rasa on your left. It's actually part of the hawker row not in a proper shop lot.

We arrived rather late that night so no patrons were in sight, so we have Mr Moon (the owner cum chef) full attention. He showed us the fishes available from the ice-boxes that comes fresh everyday. As they were sea fishes, you won't be able to pick them live from a tank. The price could be on the high side depending on the type of fish you pick, so please do check first before ordering.

These are the fishes we spotted on the menu book but again not all are available.

Mr Moon was rather honest and just recommended us this hoong joe yue (red snapper) which is the right size for the 3 of us. Since it was a rather small fish we only get to have "2 cooks" meaning one fish to be cooked into 2 dishes. We let Pat to decide what to do with our snapper and he also ordered a prawn dish. Mr Moon keep assuring us that he doesn't use MSG in his cooking which we think it's very good as the natural freshness of the seafood can be tasted.

We browsed the menu book which is full of photos, many of them repeated or pictured differently. It recommends the kinda dishes you could order from one single fish and of course their specialties. I can't help but notice there were "ratings" like 1 cook, 2 cooks or 3 cooks. Upon enquiry, Mr Moon said it's rated by a team from Astro which Chui Ling was amongst them which you can see their pics plastered all over the place. Apparently, 1 cook is supposedly have the highest marks given.

I was captivated by this dish... Iced Mango Fish. From the pic, the deep fried fish was rested on a bed of mango cubes and topped with ice-cream??? When I asked Pat, he just smiled!!!

We waited almost 30 mins for our first dish to arrive, yes it's pretty long cos it's a steamed porridge (rice congee). Mr Moon advised us to call and order this in advance to avoid waiting that long. Part of our snapper including the bones were used in this dish, topped with an egg with a sprinkling of kei chi (goji berries) and served on top of a portable gas stove to keep the porridge warm.

Thumbs up were given for this porridge from all of us. The porridge is extra smooth, very different from normal boiled porridge. The natural sweetness of the fish can be tasted here with a tinge of Chinese wine. Fantastic! Pat mentioned that the previous time, he have prawns added in which made the porridge even sweeter.

We asked for a prawn each after Mr Moon indicated that they're rather huge and he turned them into Cheese Honey style. The prawns I have to say are absolutely firm and fresh however, there is hardly any cheese detected. Most probably melted into the sweet and sourish gravy. The prawns were fresh but the sauce were mediocre.

The last dish that came, errrm sort of like threw me and CES off a bit. So Pat did ordered the Iced Mango Fish afterall!

Due to our minuscule sized fish, the fish slices were thinly sliced, coated lightly with sesame seeds and deep fried. The fish slices were placed on the sides of a bed of mango and papaya cubes plus some canned rambutans with pureed mango at the bottom of the plate. In the centre were a myriad of ice-cream scoops of different flavours, yes, you read me... ice-cream!!! Finished off with a cherry as topper :P

Mr Moon was there to guide us to eat this... place the fish and mango inside the mouth then followed by some ice-cream. I can't really described the feelings... it's a pretty different experience for someone who eats french fries dipped into soft ice-cream. Like CES' comment, "I think my mouth is kinda confused now"... yeah I could relate to this. It's kinda confused to my system to decide if this is part of my mains or was it dessert already??? It was fun though trying something out of the norm.

The prawn dish costed us RM21 whilst the 2 fish dishes came up to RM52.80. Tea and ice all round up our bill to RM81.30 which seems reasonable. Oh yeah this place do accept credit cards, so I can imagine those huge exotic fishes could cost an arm and a leg. I was told it gets very busy here on weekends so a reservation is a must as tables are limited.

There are other dishes as well like tofu soup, steamed fish, tung por yuk (one day advance notice required) and etc. Looks like I'll have to come again to check the rest out but for that night, the star was definitely the steam porridge! Gosh I'm drooling now.

Wednesday, 17 June 2009

Using the same recipe as Mini Cheese & Spinach Quiche, I sub the cheese and spinach with sliced beef, onions and peas. I browned the onion first before tossing in beef slices marinaded with soy sauce, a dash of worchestershire sauce, a bit of cornflour and pepper. Stirred quickly and added the peas. Season with some salt and black pepper. Dish up and cool down before placing them evenly over the pastry. Pour in egg and milk concoction and bake.

You can use frozen shortcrust pastry or make your own. I made mine this round. If you need the recipe, just leave a note in the comment and I'll post up the recipe.

Monday, 15 June 2009

This morning, my colleague passed me today's copy of Sin Chew Jit Poh. On the front page of Metro Edition section featured my friends', Eric Loke and Lee Huey Jing, plight of their baby girl Loke Kai Xin. The following are the scanned copies of the article (please click to expand the copy):

I've a copy of the original email which I've summarised together (in English) with the latest update that I've gotten from Eric this morning.

Their daughter Loke Kai Xin was diagnosed with biliary atresia at 3 months old and a Kasai procedure was done in February then. Unfortunately, the procedure did not cure her condition and was advised liver transplant as her last and only option.

Due to her weight, she was advised by University of Malaya Specialist Centre (UMSC) to seek medical help from Singapore. After the first round of pre-assessment at National University Hospital S’pore (NUH), Eric's liver artery is too short and narrow if the surgeon cut out the left lobe of the liver. Although there is no risk for Eric but it will lead to future complication and the result will not be good for Kai Xin. Huey Jing went thru all major pre-assessment and found to be a favourable donor prior to the rest of the assessments to be done at a later date.

At the moment, Kai Xin's current weight is 7.2 kg inclusive of water in her tummy and they need to get Kai Xin to gain her weight to 8kg before the liver transplant team can arrange the date to have the transplant done. Kai Xin is staying in UMSC as they need to use a feeding pump to feed her gradually during the night (less milk volume but increased feeding frequency) plus maintaining her health level to be as good as possible.

The total cost including post-operations and follow up expected to be at the region of RM500k (liver transplant and pre-assessment SGD200k, post ops, follow ups etc) or more due to her age. This amount is just too high for them to bear in full moreover they've spent more than RM50k up till now for Kai Xin's medical expenses; therefore they are appealing for help. As of last week, the figure had barely touched 10% of the amount needed. Hopefully with their plight highlighted in Sin Chew Jit Poh, the desired amount can be met.

A fund has been set-up for Kai Xin with following bank account details. For those who are keen, kindly deposit your donations (cash or cheque) in favour of:

Thursday, 11 June 2009

Actually, I was a bit reluctant to write about Brussels Beer Cafe as I find them more of a watering hole than a place that serves good food. Not to say their food is not up to mark but I guess it's really depends on what you order plus it's really individual's opinion. However, we do loved the wide range of beer selections they have here, that one Brussels Beer Cafe really wins hands down!

I have a rather fruity flavoured Hoegaarden White Draught (half pint RM14.00).

Whilst waiting for our friend to arrive, we have an order of "hard not to resist" Brussel's Style Roast Pork (RM18.80). The portion is a tad stingy and served with stoemp. Tastewise it was all right with the crispy skin but I feel our Chinese style siew yuk rocked me more especially those homemade ones :p

Later on my friend and I have this Brussels Mushroom Soup (RM8.80) which was great! It's creamy but not heavy, packed with mushroom bits. Lovely indeed.

Capt'n Hook had Onion Soup RM9.80 which is mediocre only.

My boiboi and I shared a Sausage Platter (RM28.80). Now these sausages were just all right.

Capt'n Hook's Lamb Shank & Stoemp (RM38.80) was a total disaster! The meat was tough even though the waitress said they have cooked it for many hours. They were not fork tender. The lamb still have gamey taste, something which Capt'n Hook detest. My friend's version of chicken doesn't look nor taste exciting as well.

Wednesday, 10 June 2009

With El Nino and haze looming over Kuala Lumpur, many times I just don't feel like doing anything but just veg out, cooking over hot stove is really out of the question!

I still have to feed myself eh... so I go for simplicity. A simple sandwich usually will do for me like this one. I bought a bunch of Thai basil from the market and was thinking of the ways of using them up. Usually I would boil a soup but I'm not drinking hot soup in such weather :p So what I did was plucked and cleaned some leaves; chucked them into a lightly beaten egg and made an omelette out of them.

I toasted a slice of my homemade multi-grain bread, butter it and place some tomato slices over. Drizzle a bit of extra virgin olive oil and a light sprinkling of balsamic vinegar. Place the omelette on top and some left over roasted pepper (capsicum). More olive oil and balsamic vinegar, plus some freshly grated black pepper. Voila!!! Simple, fast and best of all no hovering over the stove for more than 2 minutes, YAY!

Monday, 8 June 2009

A Slice of Heaven brought to you by Just Heavenly have arrived in Petaling Jaya, Jaya One to be precise. The cake boutique was opened on 6th June, last Saturday. It's located in the same block as Cold Storage, just walk down further after Guardian and you'll find the lovely blue shop with pillows of clouds (painted by Allan himself, no less); funky light fixtures and a "tree" with sugar cookies as leaves.

Actually I have no idea they opened on that day as I did not manage to go online for 3 days, so happened we were at Jaya One for lunch and I stumbled upon the shop on my way to the loo :p and I went oooOOOoooo hehehe. The boutique assistants have ushered me to buy some and I assured them I'll be back once I'm done at Cold Storage. Of course I HAD to keep to my words as my boiboi have been tugging at my sleeves on our way to the loo and also kept reminding me whilst I was picking up some stuff at the supermarket!!! And surprise surprise... I met Nigel and Allan there fussing over the shop and entertaining their customers when we returned.

Capt'n Hook and I congratulate them both. My boiboi was checking out the goodies in the display plus if could, he would have "pluck" quite a number of "leaves" from the "tree". I bought up quite a number of cupcakes available but the delish durian choc was not in sight sighhh...

I'm not going to "sell" the yummy cakes for they're all really good and the toppings are not sickly sweet... they really brought us to Heaven!

The broken dinosaur which made boiboi kicked up a fuss when he saw it back home. He asked his daddy why he drove so recklessly until his dino broke it's nose and tail *roll eyes*

If you're in Petaling Jaya, you're really blessed now with a real slice of Heaven. From now till 10th June, there's a 15% discount given as part of the opening promotion.

For those nearer to Damansara Heights, you can go to Pleasures at Lot G, 1.05 No 1, Jln Media Setia 1, Bukit Damansara, 50490 Kuala Lumpur or call +603 2287 9866 to place your orders.

Sunday, 7 June 2009

Whenever we go to Fock Kee, we tend to see this Restoran Jeffrey across the road (within the park itself). One evening we decided to give it a go. Capt'n Hook ordered his Kong Nam Meen (forgot the price) which is similar to fresh prawn noodles except there is no gigantic prawns. In replace, there are assortment of vegetables, sliced pork and prawns on eggy gravy with century egg slices on the side. The gravy was lovely, not starchy at all with the barely cooked cracked egg all over the crispy noodles.

We also ordered this Fried Mee Hoon With Lala (RM6.00). Looked kinda plain but taste wise it packed a punch with reasonably sized lala which came in a rather generous amount.

We also got a small portion of Harm Darn Har (RM25) which is prawns coated with salted egg yolks. This is pretty ok, a tad oily, as we have eaten better ones than this but at least the prawns were crunchy indicating that they're very fresh.

I noted they have a whole lot more dishes that you can go with rice, plus some other noodles dishes as well.